Ask an Admin: March Madness Predictions

Ask an Admin (Admins being the term for Reddit employees) is a weekly column connecting Redditors and Upvoted readers with the people behind-the-scenes at Reddit. Got a question for Greg the Admin? Email him at askanadmin@reddit.com.

Who do you think will win March Madness?
–Reddit user blabyrinth

“This is a sports reference, isn’t it?” That’s what I can imagine 99% of Reddit office admins responding, moments from now when I ask them all who they think will win the tournament.

I, for one, am a sports fan—and an avid one at that. Football is my favorite sport, followed by basketball, and then they all kinda trickle down after that. Wrestling, whether you want to argue that it is or is not a sport, is a passion of mine. I play fantasy, do a bit of gambling (where legal, of course), and am all too familiar with the devastating demise that is one’s March Madness bracket breaking after the first round.

Do I follow college sports enough to really know who will win the tournament this year? No, not really, although time and time again I always root for Duke—not withstanding the fact that they actually won the whole show last year, but they’ve got Coach K, and he has a history of doing well every year. I know Iowa and North Carolina do well and, oh, as a matter of fact, pretty much every team in those Southeastern states without professional sports team should be considered.

Who do I want to win? Well, that would be my alma mater, of course! California, ranked in the top 25 since at least the time before I went to school there. I’ve been rooting for them to win the Pac-12 tournament this week, and can’t wait to see how well they do in the big show.

Alright, now to the really fun part. Let’s go ask my co-workers who they think will win March Madness. I promise to keep these answers as verbatim as possible:

Reddit user Maxgprime: [long pause] Hmmm… Kobe Bryant?

Kn0thing: UVA, obviously!

Yanetanne: [eavesdropping on my conversation with Kn0thing] I already know the answer: It’s going to be USC. Fight the fuck on!